October 2012 Newsletter

Welcome to our October 2012 newsletter.

Our aim is to be able to update you on anything you may have missed if you didn't attend our October meeting and also to inform you of any future events.

• 11 members attended plus 2 guests and there were 4 apologies 

• Our Christmas meal this year is at La Trattoria on the 12^th December.  The cost of the meal is around £20.00 for 3 courses.  Erica has already taken deposits of £5.00 and contacted the Restaurant to make the booking so if you missed the October meeting and wish to attend you will need to contact the Restaurant direct

• We asked members to take a look at the possibilities for next year’s calendar and to select one or more choices from the list that was drawn up from the previous month's meeting.  The Committee will take a look at the preferred events/speakers and plan the 2013 itinery at the next committee meeting.  We are hoping this will be completed and the calendars available by the November meeting.

• The committee had talked about starting a savings club in the New Year so that members would have money available if they wanted to pay for any events, WI subscriptions etc. as these can be quite expensive. We will look at this over the next few months as we are unsure of the best way forward at present.
• Our guest speaker for the evening was Steven Jarvis and his assistant Alan Underhill.  Steven was talking about ‘Toys through the ages’ from 1800s to recent times. We had a good time reminiscing over the toys that many of us had as children
• This quarter's ‘Supper Club’ was held on Thursday 18^th October at the usual place La Trattoria  There were 7 of us there 6 members and one guest Bevany who was unable to make it to our September meeting and wanted to come for the meal. As usual it was an enjoyable evening  .I would like to take this opportunity to welcome back Amanda who also attended the Supper Club has she hasn’t been able to attend our meetings for a while due to ill health.

The Book Club.

The author of this month’s read is Derek Lewis who spent his early years in Pontypridd.  The book is called “Headlong into Life”.   As yet a date hasn’t been set for the next meeting but it will probably be around the end of November, I will provide an update as soon as possible.   

                      

November Meeting

• Our guest for the November 14^th meeting will be a representative from the Body Shop.  Please bring a friend or relative as it is an opportunity to start you Christmas Shopping if you haven't done so already.

• It is Glamorgan Federation's 90^th anniversary next year and there are various events being organised between November 2012 and December 2013. To finish off the celebrations there will be a Carol Service and a parade of each group's banners. As we don't currently have a banner we are asking members to design a simple logo so that we can choose one that would we could use on stationery and also put on our banner. Please can you fetch your design(s) along to our November meeting.  We are just looking for something simple that depicts Pontypridd.

Please don’t forget our chosen charity – the Local Food Bank and bring a non perishable food item if you want to donate. Doesn’t have to be anything expensive – small can of fruit, long life milk, packet soup, etc.

We are too late to decorate a Christmas Tree for the Glamorgan Federation 90^th celebration being held at The Orangery, Margam Park in December but I love making decorations for my tree so I thought those of you who are knitters may want to try the following Knitted Cracker pattern, an alternative way to decorate your own Christmas tree.

Christmas Cracker  

Measurement: About 10 cm [4in] in length.

Note: Instructions are given for the green cracker shown in the illustration. For red cracker make in same way, using colours illustrated.

To make

The basic sausage shape is made first. The end pieces are knitted separately, then gathered around the sausage shape.

Begin at one end and using green cast on 10 sts.

1st row: Inc K wise into every st - 20 sts.

Beginning with a Purl row, st-st 15 rows.   

Break off green and join on yellow.                                               

St-st 2 rows.

Join on red and st-st 4 rows. Break off red.

Continue in yellow and st-st 2 rows.

Break off yellow and join on green.

St-st 15 rows.

Next row: (P2tog) to end - 10 sts.

(B & T) Break off yarn leaving a long end & Thread it through the stitches loosely and leave for later.

Join row ends. Gather round cast on sts, pull up tightly and fasten off. Turn right side out and stuff evenly to form a sausage shape. Pull up length of yarn tightly and fasten off.

Now use a length of green yarn to gather round the shape nine knitted rows away from one end. Pull up gathers very tightly and knot yarn ends. Sew yarn ends into cracker. Repeat this at the other end of cracker.

For each end piece use green, begin at outer edge and cast on 20 sts loosely.

G-st 2 rows.

Continue in st-st and work 8 rows.

B & T loosely.

Oversew row ends together on each end piece. Turn right side out. Place each piece in position on the cracker with the 20 loops at the positions of the gathered end portions of the cracker. Pull up yarn lengths very tightly and fasten off. Sew yarn ends into cracker.

Add a twisted cord hanging loop.

Glamorgan Federation updates

• Photo entries for the GFWI Calender 2014 must be received at Federation House by Friday 11^th January 2013.  The photographs must be of either Waterfalls, Weirs & Cascades in the Glamorgan Federation Area. Further details will be on our information table at the next meeting.

• To celebrate the Glamorgan Federation's 90th year Denman is putting on a four course Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening of the weekend15/17 March 2013.  You can register your interest by contacting Margaret Rogers on 01443 204729 as soon as possible.

• Calling all Quizzers.  On page 13 of WI Life there is the promotion of a National WI Quiz. The Glamorgan round will be held at Avon on 4 April 2013. If any WI member is interested in representing Glamorgan (it will be a team of four) please contact June Humphry in writing by Friday 15 December. If oversubscribed a draw will take place.

• Join the Federation for a flower demonstration evening at Pencoed Agricultural College on Thursday 21 February 2013 between 7pm and 9pm.  All flower arrangements will be raffled. Tickets £7. Closing date is Friday 11^th January 2013. Further details will be on our information table at the next meeting.

• If you would like to apply for WI Observer tickets for the NFWI AGM being held in Cardiff on Saturday 1 June 2013 they are  now available to order at £18.00 each. Closing date is 18^th January 2013. Further details will be on our information table at the next meeting.                                  

  

I was looking for a quote of the day but came across the following instead, almost certainly thought up by a man.....

What do u call a woman in heaven? - An Angel.
A crowd of women in heaven? - A host of Angels.
And all women in heaven? - PEACE ON EARTH!